Autophagy in Xp11 translocation renal cell carcinoma: from bench to bedside

Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry - Xp11 translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) characterized by the rearrangement of the TFE3 is recently identified as a unique subtype of RCC that urgently...     

阿尔茨海默病的症状、诊断及其护理

阿尔茨海默病(Alzheimer's disease,AD),俗称老年痴呆病,是一种发病进程缓慢、随着时间不断恶化的神经退化性疾病.本研究根据认知能力和身体机能的恶化程度对阿尔茨海默病的病程进行分期描述,对前期、早期、中期和晚期4个时期的症状、临床诊断和护理进行了系统的分析,以期全面了解和认识阿尔茨海默病的症状和征候,为预防和早期干预阿尔茨海默病提供理论基础.     

诱集植物在农业中的应用研究进展与展望

全世界每年因病虫害导致严重的农业经济损失, 为了减少病虫害的发生, 实际生产中通常使用大量化学农药, 然而农药的大量施用, 不仅造成环境污染和农产品安全问题, 还会使病虫害产生抗药性, 天敌种群受损, 从而导致病虫害爆发日益严重。种植诱集植物是一种环境友好型病虫害防控方法, 该方法主要是通过诱集植物吸引虫害和降低病害, 从而减少病虫害对主栽作物的危害, 达到保护主栽作物的目的, 最终减少农业上化学农药的使用。根据诱集植物自身特性, 将其分为五种主导作用类型: 传统诱集植物、致死型诱集植物、基因工程型诱集植物、生物辅助控制型诱集植物、化学信息素辅助作用型诱集植物等, 根据种植和利用方式, 将其分为: 围种诱集、间种诱集、连作诱集、与其它方式结合等。尽管关于诱集植物的研究已有近160年历史, 但有关高效诱集植物的筛选、诱集植物与主栽作物的优化配置模式与配套种植技术、诱集植物对靶标病虫害的作用机理、诱集植物在农业生产中的生态风险评估等仍不清楚, 且诱集植物仍具有较大开发潜力和应用价值, 如(1)开发应用诱集植物的环境污染修复功能及相关技术; (2)开发应用诱集植物的景观生态与休闲旅游功能及相关技术; (3)开发利用诱集植物对土壤的养分转化与固持提升功能(如固氮、固碳、固土功能等)、生物质能源功能、节能减排功能及相关技术; (4)开发应用诱集植物及其废弃物的经济产品功能及其可持续生产技术。论文综述了近年来国内外有关诱集植物的相关研究与实践应用, 旨在为诱集植物在农业生产中进行病虫害防治研究和应用提供相关参考。     

Endonasal Endoscopic Treatment of Recurrent Dacryocystitis

This report assessed clinical conditions leading to recurrent dacryocystitis and success rates of its treatment by endonasal endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy. Forty-eight patients with recurrent dacryocystitis underwent endonasal endoscopic surgery and were followed up for at least 6 months. High bone windows, small bone window openings, small lacrimal sac stomas, scar tissues, and organic diseases of the nasal cavity led to fistula closure. Out of 48 patients, 45 (93.8 %) patients were cured by endonasal endoscopic surgery. Endonasal endoscopic dacryocystorhinostomy is beneficial for recurrent dacryocystitis.     

Compromised NK Cell-Mediated Antibody-Dependent Cellular Cytotoxicity in Chronic SIV/SHIV Infection

Increasing evidence indicates that antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) contributes to the control of HIV/SIV infection. However, little is known about the ADCC function of natural killer (NK) cells in non-human primate model. Here we demonstrated that ADCC function of NK cells was significantly compromised in chronic SIV/SHIV infection, correlating closely with the expression of FcγRIIIa receptor (CD16) on NK cells. CD32, another class of IgG Fc receptors, was identified on NK cells with higher expression in the infected macaques and the blockade of CD32 impacted the ability of NK cells to respond to antibody-coated target cells. The inhibition of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs), a group of enzymes normally involved in tissue/receptor remodeling, could restore NK cell-mediated ADCC with increased CD16 expression on macaque NK cells. These data offer a clearer understanding of NK cell-mediated ADCC in rhesus macaques, which will allow us to evaluate the ADCC repertoire arising from preclinical vaccination studies in non-human primates and inform us in the future design of effective HIV vaccination strategies.     

A mass spectrometry-based high-throughput screening method for engineering fatty acid synthases with improved production of medium-chain fatty acids

Microbial cell factories have been extensively engineered to produce free fatty acids (FFAs) as key components of crucial nutrients, soaps, industrial chemicals, and fuels. However, our ability to control the composition of microbially synthesized FFAs is still limited, particularly, for producing medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). This is mainly due to the lack of high-throughput approaches for FFA analysis to engineer enzymes with desirable product specificity. Here we report a mass spectrometry (MS)-based method for rapid profiling of MCFAs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by using membrane lipids as a proxy. In particular, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-ToF) MS was used to detect shorter acyl chain phosphatidylcholines from membrane lipids and a higher m/z peak ratio at 730 and 758 was used as an indication for improved MCFA production. This colony-based method can be performed at a rate of ~2 s per sample, representing a substantial improvement over gas chromatography-MS (typically >30 min per sample) as the gold standard method for FFA detection. To demonstrate the power of this method, we performed site-saturation mutagenesis of the yeast fatty acid synthase and identified nine missense mutations that resulted in improved MCFA production relative to the wild-type strain. Colony-based MALDI-ToF MS screening provides an effective approach for engineering microbial fatty acid compositions in a high-throughput manner.     

Negative Regulation of Interferon-induced Transmembrane Protein 3 by SET7-mediated Lysine Monomethylation

Although lysine methylation is classically known to regulate histone function, its role in modulating antiviral restriction factor activity remains uncharacterized. Interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3) was found monomethylated on its lysine 88 residue (IFITM3-K88me1) to reduce its antiviral activity, mediated by the lysine methyltransferase SET7. Vesicular stomatitis virus and influenza A virus infection increased IFITM3-K88me1 levels by promoting the interaction between IFITM3 and SET7, suggesting that this pathway could be hijacked to support infection; conversely, IFN-α reduced IFITM3-K88me1 levels. These findings may have important implications in the design of therapeutics targeting protein methylation against infectious diseases.     

Directed evolution of phloroglucinol synthase PhlD with increased stability for phloroglucinol production

Phloroglucinol synthase PhlD is a type III polyketide synthase capable of directly converting three molecules of malonyl-CoA to an industrially important chemical—phloroglucinol (1, 3, 5-trihydroxylbenzene). Although this enzymatic process provides an attractive biosynthetic route to phloroglucinol, the low productivity of PhlD limits its further practical application. Here we used protein engineering coupled with in situ product removal to improve the productivity of phoroglucinol biosynthesis in recombinant Escherichia coli. Specifically, directed evolution was used to obtain a series of thermostable PhlD mutants with the best one showing over 24-fold longer half-life of thermal inactivation than the wild-type enzyme at 37 °C. When introduced into a malonyl-CoA overproducing E. coli strain, one of the mutants showed 30 % improvement in phloroglucinol productivity compared to the wild-type enzyme in a shake-flask study and the final phloroglucinol concentration reached 2.35 g/L with 25 % of theoretical yield. A continuous product extraction strategy was designed to remove the toxic phloroglucinol product from the cell media, which further increased the titer of phloroglucinol to 3.65 g/L, which is the highest phloroglucinol titer ever reported to date.     

木聚糖酶EvXyn11TS耐热性与其N端二硫键的相关性分析

[目的]以糖苷水解酶11家族耐热木聚糖酶EvXyn11TS为研究对象,定点突变其编码基因Syxyn11,揭示EvXyn11TS耐热性与其N端二硫键的相关性.[方法]对不同来源的、与EvXyn11TS一级结构相似度较高的若干11家族木聚糖酶进行多序列同源比对,发现只有耐热的EvXyn11TS在其N端存在一个二硫键(Cys5-Cys32);运用分子动力学模拟预测该N端二硫键存在与否对木聚糖酶热稳定性的影响.以人工合成的Syxyn11为母本,采用PCR技术将其编码Cys5的密码子TGT突变为编码Thr5的ACT,构建去除了N端二硫键的突变酶(EvXyn11M)的编码基因Syxyn11M;分别将Syxyn11和Syxyn11M在毕赤酵母GS115中进行表达,并分析表达产物EvXyn 11 TS和EvXyn11M的温度和pH特性.[结果]酶学性质研究结果表明:EvXyn11M的最适温度Topt由突变前的85℃降至70℃;EvXyn11TS在90℃的半衰期t1/290为32 min,而EvXyn11M在70℃的半衰期t1/270仅为8.0 min.[结论]运用分子动力学模拟预测了N端二硫键对EvXyn11TS耐热性的重要作用,并通过定点突变验证之,为其它与耐热EvXyn11TS一级结构相似的、11家族常温高比活性木聚糖酶的耐热性改造提供了新的技术策略.